A comprehensive assessment of lifecourse and mortality of Parkinson's disease in the German National Cohort.

Berger K, Karch A, Lill CM, Berger TL, Mueller U, Bartl M, Mollenhauer B, Fischer B, Michels KB, Meyer PT, Katzke VA, Sabin J, Willich SN, Keil T, Castell S, Hauri AM, Schulze MB, Schikowski T, Riedel O, Pischon T, Velasquez IM, Heinzel S, Brenner H, Peters A, Mikolajczyk R, Herrmann T, Trenkwalder C.

NPJ Parkinsons Dis · 2026-06-26

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A strong increase in the prevalence and deaths of Parkinson's disease (PD) has been reported over the last three decades. Ageing societies, genetic and environmental factors and access to health care contribute to these increases. Using data of the German National Cohort (NAKO) PD classifications based on self-report, claims data and a brief medication based algorithm to increase validity in the absence of neurologic examinations, were compared and the PD incidence, selected non-motor symptoms, functions and vital status were analysed. The algorithm based PD prevalence among 205.000 participants was 0.13% but it was 2.5-fold higher in claims data. Self-reported PD incidence was 0.13% over a median of 4.8 years follow-up, but cases had a 4-fold higher mortality, worse emotional, motoric and olfactory functions and higher prevalences of diabetes, obesity, depression and anxiety. The algorithm based PD prevalence and the mortality risk was similar to considerable older population studies from Europe.

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